I guess it depends on who's doing it...

In his excellent analysis in Rolling Stone Magazine, about the attack on public employee pensions, Matt Taibbi observes:" ...The battle increasingly centers around public funds like state and municipal pensions...In state after state, politicians are using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast teachers, firefighters, and cops - not bankers - as the budget devouring bogeyman responsible for the mounting fiscal problems in America's states and cities."

If we look at  recent media discussions about the annual bonuses given to City of Detroit workers, popularly referred to as the "13th check," we can almost  see those PR wheels grinding. The media treatment of the so-called 13th check requires a more balanced perspective than we've seen so far, and overlooks a few important factors. Hopefully we can provide some context to demonstrate that there's nothing inherently evil about city workers receiving a bonus.

Giving city workers a small bonus once a year, wasn't an unusual step when it began in 1985. Detroit was part of an environment all across Southeastern Michigan, where thousands of autoworkers were benefiting from these incentives too. Betty Buss, a former City of Detroit budget analyst, now with the Citizens Research Council of Michigan,  observed recently that,  "...The auto industry was the goose that laid the golden egg for us...It formed a lot of cultural expectations of decent wages for low-skilled jobs. It affected the wages and fringes in the public sector....”


Diego Rivera mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts, a City of Detroit asset.

That extra paycheck came to city employees and retirees in time to help with winter living expenses.  These workers have been asked to take pay cuts, pay freezes, and layoffs regularly, so  this was an important acknowledgement of their sacrifice. Additionally, salaries in  local government are not competitive with the private sector, and historically offered  better job security and better benefits, including pensions, instead of higher salaries. As for bonuses, city workers received, on average, far less than  the average autoworker, and in both cases most of those funds go right back into the local economy.

The fact that these bonuses act as a stimulus to the local economy cannot be overstated.  In fact,  the economic boost of  autoworker bonuses from the Big Three automakers, is heralded with celebratory headlines in the media, as this article in February, 2012, from the Bloomberg Financial News, demonstrates:  "UAW Bonuses on GM Profit May Lift Economy."
Keith Naughton and Jeff Green wrote: "The rebound in carmaker profits is putting money back into the pockets of U.S. workers after years of belt-tightening.....The payouts come on top of similar bonuses at Ford and Chrysler. The money may lift the economy of states with unionized auto factories such as Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky."

It is further observed that, as a result of these bonuses,  "morale is certainly improving..." In the past, bonuses were usually reserved for top level executives, so the fact that the average worker is also seeing an annual bonus, is viewed as an acknowledgement of their efforts, a way of saying they are valued. In a November, 2012,  Washington Post article, Sarah Halzack writes, "Bonuses help foster a concept known as "employee engagement" which is a measure of how invested a worker is in the company and his/her job."

Miss Halzack finds that, "variable pay as a category of compensation that includes bonuses... was used by 82% of employers in 2012, up from 79% in 2011....the increased use of variable pay spans nearly all sectors, even government, education, and non-profit organizations." So employee bonuses are an increasing trend in employment in all sectors, especially in environments where workers are asked to make sacrifices, forego raises, and experience pay cuts as they certainly have in the City of Detroit's case. As Halzack points out:" Variable pay is viewed as a strategy to keep payroll budgets nimble."